“The circle of life” took on multiple meanings at this afternoon’s Fauntleroy Creek “drumming to call the salmon home” event. First – the circle of those who came to celebrate the annual return, about three dozen participants by our count. Second, the phrase was part of a “call-and-response” inviting participants to share a significant event in their lives since last year’s gathering. And third – organizer and creek/watershed steward Judy Pickens noted that while seven spawners had been counted so far, none had made it up the creek – otter(s) had eaten them. Nonetheless, the celebration was on – with drums of many sizes and types:
That provided a mentoring opportunity, too, as Irene Stewart demonstrated:
Singing accompanied the drumming – that’s organizer Judy at center, music leader Jamie Shilling at right:
(video added) The gathering had begun with Judy recalling the first returning salmon (nicknamed “Harry and Louise”) almost two decades ago, followed by Jamie leading a song:
Mary led young welcomers through a recounting of the story of baby salmon’s comings, goings, and growing:
As noted here last week, volunteer watchers will be keeping an eye out for the salmon in the weeks ahead.
(2011 photo from Fauntleroy Creek, courtesy Dennis Hinton)
This Sunday is the day set for the annual Fauntleroy Creek community drumming session to call the salmon home. (5 pm, creek overlook at Fauntleroy/Director, across and uphill from the ferry dock) But they don’t seem to be waiting for an invitation – they’re approaching, and we just got word that volunteer creek-watchers are needed:
With the spotting of two coho spawners in the tidepool at the mouth of Fauntleroy Creek, Salmon Watch 2012 is getting under way a few days ahead of schedule. If you’ve thought about being a salmon watcher, this could be the year to see a lot of action. Volunteers schedule themselves for half-hour shifts when spawners are most likely to be present at the fish ladder (SW Director and upper Fauntleroy Way SW). Training on your first shift for adults and youth; children welcome with a parent. Sign up on the porch at 4539 SW Director Place; more information from Judy Pickens at 938-4203 or judy_pickens@msn.com.
The Fauntleroy Fall Festival is always an indoor-outdoor celebration – but the overdue arrival of fall rain put a little more emphasis on the indoor for Sunday’s 10th-anniversary edition. We reported on the festival as it began (WSB coverage here) – and then WSB contributing photojournalist Nick Adams roamed to capture more of the memory-making scenes, such as, above, Marcus Wiatr, left, setting up his umbrella on the meditation labyrinth inside The Hall at Fauntleroy – and back outside, Audrey Maffeo, 3, seeking creative inspiration before painting a pumpkin:
Back inside, the annual Cake Walk delighted participants: Carolyn Tucker drew another number for a lucky winner:
Indoor and outdoor fun that the rain can’t stop – that’s what you’ll find till 6 pm at the Fauntleroy Fall Festival. Above – birdhouse-building (they need somewhere to get out of the rain too!) – next, two of the many incredibly decorated cakes up for grabs during the Cake Walk:
The coveted chef’s hats are up for grabs for the winners:
Back outdoors – the pumpkins waiting to be painted, just before the festival began (we’ll get an “after” shot later):
Fauntleroy community advocates and festival volunteers are everywhere – here are Vicki Schmitz-Block and Martha Callard with the Fauntleroy Community Association banner:
And yes, the ponies are here (behind the schoolhouse, to the west, next to the parking lot)
Lots more photos later. Performances to enjoy and a lot more – here’s the schedule (but check on site if you’re looking for something specific, in case the weather forced a location move). 9100 block of Fauntleroy, in and around the church, YMCA, and old schoolhouse (which now includes a multitude of community facilities and businesses – worth the visit all by itself).
Probably no point in saying rain or shine, but the word is that the Fauntleroy Fall Festival IS STILL ON for tomorrow, rain or no rain. The most recent version of the schedule still will have some location changes because of the weather, so just check around when you get there, for the updated plan. Also – one last call for CAKES!!! for the Cake Walk – great thing to make on this rainy afternoon. Kim Petram‘s reminder, “Any homemade cake will do – you don’t have to be an expert decorator, just do your best. Please bring all donated cakes to the festival on Sunday October 14th, dropoff starting at 11:00 a.m. at The Hall at Fauntleroy Emerald Room.” Kim adds, “This year the cake walk will have a slightly different prize category for best decorated cakes – beginners, intermediate and experienced … please have them to the festival preferable by 1:30 pm and no later than 2 pm. The festival begins at 2:00 p.m. – festivalgoers can vote on their favorite cakes in the three categories from 2:00 pm to 3:15 pm with the prize winners announced at 3:30 p.m.. The cake walk will then commence. The most coveted and fabulous hand made chef hats are again the prizes.” The festival sites are Fauntleroy Church, YMCA(WSB sponsor), and Schoolhouse, 9140 and 9131 California SW, 2-6 pm tomorrow – see you there!
(WSB photo of decorated pumpkins at 2011 Fauntleroy Fall Festival)
Six days till the 10th annual Fauntleroy Fall Festival – 2-6 pm this Sunday at the Y, church, and schoolhouse in the 9100 block of California SW (map). Today, the schedule’s out!
Click the schedule image to see the full-size PDF. Thanks to Judy Pickens for sharing the info! See you there.
The Fauntleroy Fall Festival is a little more than two weeks away – and in addition to making plans to come enjoy it, there are a few ways you can help. From Kim Petram:
It’s back! The wildly popular cake walk is back. Handmade Fauntleroy Fall Festival chef hats will again be the prizes for best decorated cakes. The festival planning committee is asking for community members to donate cakes to the cake walk. Any homemade cake will do – you don’t have to be an expert decorator, just do your best.
Please bring all donated cakes to the festival on Sunday October 14th, dropoff starting at 11:00 a.m. at The Hall at Fauntleroy. This year’s festival runs from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. throughout the Fauntleroy triangle.
Also: Volunteers are still needed. Please contact the Fauntleroy Church, UCC office at 206-932-5600 if you can volunteer a few hours at the festival.
The “Fauntleroy triangle” where the festival is held includes the schoolhouse, church, and Y, 9131 California SW and 9140 California SW (with a crossing guard on duty for the duration).
The team from 1 Green Planet (a nonprofit) was already very busy when we stopped by the fall “Recycle Roundup” at Fauntleroy Church minutes after it started this morning. This pickup truck full of big recyclables followed several vehicles that already had come through and dropped off their contributions to the recycling drive. It continues till 3 pm, so you have time to go see what you have in the basement or the storage unit or wherever – as long as it’s listed here as the type of item they’ll accept – and take it to the church parking lot at 9140 California SW.
(WSB photo from last April’s Recycle Roundup)
This Sunday brings another chance for you to recycle no-longer-needed and/or no-longer-working electronics, among other things, as Fauntleroy Church hosts another of its twice-a-year Recycle Roundups with 1 Green Planet. Check the list on the official flyer – it’s a LONG list! – those are the items you’re welcome to drop off in the church parking lot, 9140 California SW, between 9 am and 3 pm on Sunday (September 23). Last time around, participants dropped off a record 16 tons of recyclables!
It’s a world of bargains until 3 pm today – and again 11 am-2 pm on Sunday – at Fauntleroy Church‘s 2nd-Time Sale. And it’s not just the small stuff – volunteers are excited about the barely used furniture donated this year:
The small stuff’s there too, of course. Commemorative spoons, anyone?
And it’s never too soon to get ready for Christmas:
Fauntleroy Church is at 9140 California SW. And NEXT weekend, it’s where you’ll find the twice-yearly Recycle Roundup – start stacking up your electronics and more now (but don’t bring them to the church parking lot until Sunday 9/23, 9 am-3 pm).
Two weeks after a letter from the Fauntleroy Community Association (noted in our coverage of FCA’s August meeting), SDOT has moved the school-zone lights on southbound Fauntleroy Way, near Gatewood Elementary, to address visibility issues. (Compare the photo above to the one in our August 14th story.) This is the same area where a speeder-detecting camera is scheduled to be in operation this fall, as first reported here earlier this month. One glitch, though – Phil Sweetland from the FCA board, who’s been monitoring the issue, says the new location is, while more visible, is south of the old one – therefore closer to the school, giving drivers less time to react. He had suggested a change northward (further from the school) and even has put together a PDF with a montage showing the difference.
The electronics/etc. Recycle Roundups sponsored by Fauntleroy Church for West Seattle/White Center residents continue to grow in popularity, so we’re giving you early warning about the next one, in case you’re getting ready for a round of end-of-summer cleaning – September 23rd, 9 am-3 pm. Watch the church website for a list of what they’ll take and what they won’t.
ADDED: We have a copy of that list now – see it here.
Every so often, a Seattle Parks property gets extra attention via what the department calls a “jamboree” – with staffers from all over the city deploying to the chosen park. The next one is Lincoln Park, as discussed at the Fauntleroy Community Association‘s board meeting this week. Parks manager Carol Baker came to the meeting to share some early details:
(WSB photo added Wednesday afternoon)
While FCA board members say they’re fine with the Seattle Police plan to install a fixed speed-monitoring/ticketing camera in the Gatewood Elementary school zone on Fauntleroy Way, they say the current southbound warning light needs to be moved. (That point also was made in comments on our Sunday night story about the forthcoming camera.) Ahead, the letter FCA is sending to the city:
Lots of work going on in the vicinity of Washington State Ferries‘ Fauntleroy terminal. The crane in the photo above just arrived today, and it will be doing work for King County’s Barton Pump Station Upgrade Project, which got under way earlier this summer on the north side of the dock. Meantime, a crane that had been working on the ferry dock itself has now departed. Kevin McClintic photographed it on Monday:
This one WAS a ferry-system project. WSF’s Marta Coursey tells WSB, “During a recent bridge inspection, a pile was discovered missing under the timber trestle due to loss of pile embedment. The area was closed while an emergency contract was developed and materials were procured. The work began on Monday to drive two steel H-piles and remove one timber pile.”
2:29 AM: If you’ve been hearing the sirens, there’s a fire response at apartments in the 9100 block of 45th in Fauntleroy (map). More to come.
2:36 AM UPDATE: The fire is “tapped,” according to the scanner. It’s in the end unit of a garden-style apartment building.
2:55 AM UPDATE: Firefighters have been working to make sure the fire hadn’t spread beyond the apartment where it began. As for whether anyone was hurt, the incident commander is deferring comment until the public-information officer arrives.
3:47 AM UPDATE: SFD spokesperson Kyle Moore says a woman was found dead inside the apartment where the fire broke out – after the fire was knocked down, firefighters found the body of what Moore described as an elderly woman, about 10 to 12 feet inside. (added) Here’s his briefing, unedited:
They’re still trying to find out what started the fire; so far, Moore said, it appears to have started in the living room, which is where the victim was found. He said she was a longtime resident of the second-floor unit, to which the fire was contained. The fire was called in by neighbors, who, according to Moore, banged on the door to try to see if the woman was OK – but got no reply.
4:32 AM: One more note – the address of the building has been corrected from the original dispatch; it’s in the 9000 block of 45th SW, not the 9100 block. We’ll update this story later when there’s new information from investigators.
2:02 PM UPDATE: Investigators say the fire was started by “improperly discarded smoking materials.” Here’s the update on SFD’s Fire Line site. Cause of death and identification will have to come from the Medical Examiner, possibly later this afternoon.
Down the driveway from the fence in our photo’s foreground, Cove Park north of the Fauntleroy ferry dock is now closed for about two years of construction work, as King County starts major work on the $24 million Barton Pump Station Upgrade Project. That includes site preparation – removing Cove Park’s artwork “for safe storage,” relocating the beach driftwood, and putting up a safety fence. (The park is to be restored after the project, following extensive talks with the Fauntleroy Community Association.) The county says work hours generally will run 7 am-5:30 pm. But they are NOT anticipating ferry-lane closures during this initial phase. Once the project is done, the pump station’s capacity will be 50 percent more than it is now, with all-new equipment, including an emergency generator.
(By next spring, the small “fry” in this bucket will be as big as the “smolt”)
Following last week’s report about May salmon releases involving 560 students visiting Fauntleroy Creek, steward Judy Pickens has news that a record number of coho smolts (“teenagers”) have been counted as they headed for saltwater:
Between mid-March and early June, Dennis Hinton, Pete Draughton, Steev Ward, and Gail Cucksey checked upstream and downstream traps daily to document how many smolts were leaving for nearshore habitat in Fauntleroy Cove. This number is the best gauge of how healthy creek habitat is for juveniles, who spend a year in freshwater maturing into the size (3″-5″) they’ll need to survive in Puget Sound.
A total of 157 made it out this year. That’s more than 5 percent of the eggs reared for Fauntleroy Creek in 2011 through the Salmon in the Schools program. In the wild, survival from eggs to smolts is substantially less, so this is a positive stewardship story for students.
Last year, volunteers documented 147 smolts leaving the park but only 37 making it the three blocks downstream. For this reason, State Fish and Wildlife authorized carrying smolts caught in the upper trap downstream to improve survival.
The next big monitoring period comes this fall, when volunteers watch for mature coho returning to spawn.
A guilty plea today for 20-year-old Angelo Felice, who, 16 months ago, was arrested and charged with the Fauntleroy stabbing murder of a man best known by his vaudeville name, Hokum W. Jeebs. Felice was arrested while spotted walking in eastern West Seattle after someone saw him climbing out of the Kilbourne Park ravine near Jeebs’ home the morning after the murder – as detailed in this WSB comment – and reported the sighting to police. Today, Felice pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of 2nd-degree murder, which carries a potential sentence of 10 to 18 years, but court documents say prosecutors will recommend a sentence of 140 months – just over 11 1/2 years. Felice had moved to Seattle less than a month before killing Jeebs; he had juvenile convictions for burglary and assault. (2011 photo by Jill Schmieder of Altena Photography, for WSB)
(County rendering of Cove Park, after the Barton Pump Station project)
From last night’s Fauntleroy Community Association meeting: The latest timeline for the start of major work for the Barton Pump Station upgrade project – which will close Cove Park north of the ferry dock for about two years – plus, neighborhood traffic/parking concerns related to school commuting via ferry – read on:Read More
While they have not pinpointed the problem’s cause and may never be able to – it apparently was triggered by a short power surge – here’s the likeliest scenario, according to SCL’s Scott Thomsen: Last Sunday at 3:18 pm, about 15 minutes before they got a call from the county about the pump-station problem, they had “a brief interruption on a (major) transmission line” – an osprey flew into a wire. Thomsen says that’s unusual for an osprey, and SCL wildlife biologists were sorry to hear about it, as the utility has been working to accommodate ospreys, which think utility poles are great places to nest, reminiscent of the tree snags they prefer in the wild. Meantime, as reported here last night, health authorities gave the county the all-clear to reopen the overflow-affected beaches after four days.
Back on Sunday afternoon, we showed you the signs (photo left) that had just gone up after news of an hour-long overflow from the Barton Pump Station north of the Fauntleroy ferry dock. Tonight, King County Wastewater Treatment Division says health agencies have given the all-clear for the closed beaches to reopen. King County’s announcement late today adds: “The volume of overflow into Puget Sound was estimated at 46,000 gallons. Tidal conditions and water pressure contained a substantial amount of wastewater inside the outfall pipe, which enabled crews to use submersible pumps to capture and return a significant amount of wastewater back to the pump station so it could be conveyed to the West Point Treatment Plant in Seattle.” A two-year upgrade project that’s about to get under way at the pump station includes an emergency generator; recent preparation work had involved the power system in the area, but the county hasn’t yet said whether the Sunday failure – blamed on a “failure of the main breaker,” according to spokesperson Annie Kolb-Nelson – was related to that at all.
Fauntleroy Creek‘s 2012 salmon-fry-release season is over – already! (Seems like just yesterday we were there for the first one of the season.) The photo is courtesy of Tara Slinden, forwarded by creek steward Judy Pickens, who explains:
West Seattle Elementary fifth-grader Eqra Mahamed took great delight in feeling the coho fry in her cup during a field trip to Fauntleroy Creek in May. She helped rear the fish, from eggs to fry, through the Salmon in the School program. Volunteers with the Fauntleroy Watershed Council led 16 field trips during which 560 students, preschool through seventh grade, released 2,500 fry to cap their study of salmon, habitat, and stewardship.
Each spring, volunteers also track the outbound salmon smolt, and expect to have this year’s final report soon. Then in the fall, the salmon are welcomed home – most years, with a special ceremony (here’s our 2011 coverage).
Probably no point in saying rain or shine, but the word is that the 
A guilty plea today for 20-year-old Angelo Felice, who, 16 months ago, was 
Since there had been utility work in the 
Back on Sunday afternoon, we showed you the signs (photo left) that had just gone up after news of 
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